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Stephen Kearney (CEO) and Nick Gardham (Projects Director) introduce RSLM as an educative process for systematic neighbourhood change RSLM™  or Root Solution - Listening Matters™, is the process for democratic engagement and civic renewal developed by Action to Regenerate Community Trust (reg. charity no. 1078551) over the past 25 years. It is a community engagement framework, strategy and process which is at the heart of the effective animating and organising of communities, groups and organisations. It has been proven to: develops trust, respect and relationships engages local people in conversations that lead to networks and action supports established and independent organisations and service providers to collaborate with communities in meeting their needs and aspirations. demonstrates a model of practice that may be utilised by existing and new project partners and communities. RSLM techniques allow trained Community Animators and Organisers to listen and to explore things that people love about their area that they can build on, things that concern them most - their motivations and their ideas for action , whilst focusing on and drawing out solutions.

"Community governance" refers to the processes for making all the decisions and plans that affect life in the community, whether made by public or private organizations or by citizens. For community governance to be effective, it must be about more than process, it also must be about getting things done in the community. And what gets done must make a difference. So, it is crucial to measure results. But what should be done, and what results should be measured? There is no standard answer. The most important results vary from one community to another, and different people within a community have different perceptions about what the community should try to improve and how success should be measured. So, it is vital to engage citizens in deciding what to do and to engage them in deciding what results to measure or what performance goals or targets to measure against. Then, when targeted results are achieved, they will be results that matter to the people of the community.

PACE's mission is to inspire interest, understanding, and investment in civic engagement. PACE'S goals are... to build a community within philanthropy committed to vigorous debate and action around encouraging participation and engagement in community, civic, and political life; to inspire and incubate strategic collaborations with policy makers, nonprofits, business, and the media to support active citizenship; and to increase the quantity and the quality of philanthropic investment in civic engagement strategies.

Our Vision: When we empower underrepresented populations to effectively tell their stories, we engage communities in dialogue and positive action. This process strengthens community cohesion and provides pathways for increased communication, cooperation, and respect. Our Mission: To challenge, strengthen, and connect our diverse communities through the transformative power of the individual voice. What We Believe: Stories make change possible. Stories open minds and inspire action. Stories create pathways. Since 2003, Hidden Voices has collaborated with underrepresented communities to create award-winning works that combine narrative, mapping, performance, music, digital media, animation, and interactive exhibits to engage audiences and participants in explorations of difficult issues.  Hidden Voices creates venues where stories from those rarely seen and heard by mainstream society take center stage.  These life-changing stories provide insight about identity, place, and access.  They help us understand the unrecognized, the unfamiliar, the displaced and forgotten within and among us.  A Hidden Voices project encourages deep listening; expansive dialogue, and inspired action.  Hidden Voices believes in the power of stories to transform our communities and our policies. Hidden Voices is a registered 501 (c) 3 non-profit, with more than 100 volunteers and contributing professionals developing two to three projects annually.

Results Based Community Planning implements RBA™ population accountability within a local community. It is ….. - Working with a cross section of members of a local community (eg Maitland or Coonamble) - To decide what are the big picture results or outcomes they want for their local community (eg People Belong and are Connected to their Community) - Then work out how they would measure if they had achieved that result (eg Percentage of People with an Effective Neighbourhood Network) - To consider what factors effect that measure and how the local community is going against that measure at the moment - And brainstorm potential partners and potential strategies that could be undertaken to "improve" this measure (eg increase the percentage of people with an effective neighbourhood network) - With some of the strategies having to be Low Cost or No Cost, and some of them Off the Wall because who knows what just might be possible!! - And it is not just about planning, but then getting on and doing it!

Creative placemaking is a new way of making communities more livable and prosperous through the arts, and making them better places for the arts. Creative placemaking is about more than public art or performing arts centers. It is about making places better for everyone. Traditional approaches to using arts as a revitalization tool tend to focus on building large institutions, districts or just 'doing projects.' Creative placemaking starts with building effective partnerships. Our approach to creative placemaking is based on six key elements: Building diverse and productive partnerships in communities and with local leadership to implement ideas. Enhancing quality of life for more people in communities Increasing economic opportunity for more stakeholders in communities Building healthier climates for creativity and cultural expression Engaging existing assets (both physical and human) as much as possible Promoting the best and distinct qualities of a place Our work is guided by the teachings of reflective practice, double-loop learning, asset-based community development, fifth level leadership, arts-based community development, communicative practice, environmental justice, and other current and cutting-edge philosophies of practice.  

The Guide shows how to get your school working with Participatory Budgeting (PB). The PB process creates an experiential learning environment for community engagement at a local level. Students are challenged to think about community needs and issues, exploring their environment. They are then empowered to design and implement a solution, taking shared ownership of their school community. They will gain a new attachment to their community; a sense of pride that comes with civic contribution. And they will build a stronger, more collaborative relationship with school administration, one another, and the community at large.

A series of posts on "What is….?" which are about concepts and practices relevant to working with communities written by Graeme Stuart, of Sustaining Community Engagement, whose work has been featured on the this blog a couple of times.

The University of Illinois at Chicago's Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement (IPCE) is committed to transforming democracy by creating a more fully engaged community with more effective leaders. We create opportunities for scholars, concerned citizens, students, community leaders, elected officials, and the public to actively participate in social discourse, research and educational programs on policy issues and social trends.

Founded in 2001, Tamarack is a charity that develops and supports learning communities to help people collaborate and to co-generate knowledge that solves complex community challenges. Our deep hope is to end poverty in Canada.

The Center for Communication and Civic Engagement is dedicated to understanding communication processes and media technologies that facilitate positive citizen involvement in politics and social life. CCCE is located in the Department of Communication at the University of Washington, and co-sponsored by the Department of Political Science. Students and faculty at the center work together on original research, new educational programs, policy recommendations, and Web-based citizen resources. 

BALLE believes in the power of local businesses to transform communities for the better by working cooperatively toward a shared vision. We imagine cities and towns of every size and political stripe engaged in shared learning to build community assets like sustainable agriculture, green building, renewable energy, community capital, zero-waste manufacturing and independent retail - what we call the building blocks of Living Economies. We envision a time when local economies not only generate community wealth, but also are catalysts for civic action, social diversity and ecological health -- for sustainable communities.

Collaborative Community is an enabler of transformational change in corporations, local government, social movements, and not-for-profit organisations. Wherever there are people that want to strengthen the communities they are part of, we can help. The manager trying to improve collaboration in her team. The support officer tasked with a community engagement initiative. The business owner wondering where the idea for their next product is going to come from. The environmental manager hoping to embed a culture of environmental awareness in their organisation. To these, and others, we say 'draw on our expertise and experience in fostering collaborative communities'.

Public spaces are an important part of Knight Foundation's work in cities and the communities where we invest. We believe that great public spaces have the power to transform cities. They are where neighbors can meet and residents can enjoy local arts and culture, take a jog or spend time with family. They help to advance civic engagement and the attachment people feel to their cities - both necessities for creating more informed and engaged communities. Recent research by the Center for Active Design shows that public spaces can help to facilitate community connection, trust and involvement.

Democracy Beyond Elections is a collaborative, national campaign dedicated to transformative democracy rooted in community led decision making.  It is not enough to get the right person elected or to know that those closest to the issues are closest to the solutions - we must act on this knowledge and put real decision making power in community hands. This means equipping community-members often ignored, pushed out, or marginalized by our current democratic systems with the tools, resources, and opportunities to deeply engage in democratic processes. This means committing to radically reimagine what participation and civic engagement really entail - including tangible and consequential power sharing. And this means expanding our definition of democracy to extend between and beyond elections in participatory practices that include everyone.

CivicSolve is a consulting firm with a focus on civic engagement, and a mission of "building better communities through civic engagement."  We believe in connecting people with their own power as citizens and the power that exists in communities. 

We believe that governments can make better use of scarce technology dollars by working together to solve common problems. We're helping them share their solutions, knowledge, and best practices. Civic technology experts have recognized the benefits of sharing technology among governments and institutions. However, instances of successful collaboration and sharing are still few and far between, in part because there is no easy, structured way to share knowledge about this software, let alone the software itself. There is no one place to go to look for civic software that cities need, and no roadmap to share what they have. Enter the Civic Commons. As infrastructure for the open government movement, Civic Commons is a community-edited resource to find out what's working, where. Ok, so what is it, really? Civic Commons is an information product, made up of the Marketplace, Engagement Commons, and the Wiki:

The Public Engagement Principles (PEP) Project was launched in mid-February 2009 to create clarity in our field about what we consider to be the fundamental components of quality public engagement, and to support President Obama's January 21, 2009 memorandum on open government. The following principles were developed collaboratively by members and leaders of NCDD, IAP2 (the International Association of Public Participation), the Co-Intelligence Institute, and many others.

Three basic principles Empowerment. SeeClickFix allows anyone to report and track non-emergency issues anywhere in the world via the internet. This empowers citizens, community groups, media organizations and governments to take care of and improve their neighborhoods. Efficiency. Two heads are better than one and 300 heads are better than two. In computer terminology, distributed sensing is particularly powerful at recognizing patterns, such as those that gradually take shape on a street. Besides, the government can't be in all places at all times. We make it easy and fun for everyone to see, click and fix. Engagement. Citizens who take the time to report even minor issues and see them fixed are likely to get more engaged in their local communities. It's called a self-reinforcing loop. This also makes people happy and everyone benefits from that.

Since our founding as a multi-partisan and non-profit organization in 2005, The Davenport Institute (formerly Common Sense California) has worked to engage the citizens of this state in the policy decisions that affect our everyday lives. It is our firm belief that, in today's world of easy access to information, and easy connectivity to others, California's municipal and education leaders are seeking ways to involve the residents of their communities in the important issues they confront. Done legitimately, this new kind of leadership produces better, more creative policy solutions and better, more engaged citizens committed to the hard work of self-governance.